Coin-controlled vending machine



H. GILES. COIN CONTROLLED VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I8, I920- Patented July 4, m2..-

INNER/TOR. ,FX/EJ films; er-

ATTORNEY,

HARVEY GILES, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0 ARTEMAS WARD, on NEW Y0RK,-1\T. jY.

COIN-CONTROLLED MACHIINE.

Application filed September 18, 1920. Serial No. 411,233.

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Be it known that. l, Haavnr (lines, a. citizen of the United States, and a resident of Brooklyn, in the countyof Kings and State of New York, have invented cer ain new and useful Improvements in Coin- Controlled Vending Machines. of which the fol lowing is a specification.

The invention pertains more particularly to means for protecting the coin entrance slots of a coin-controlled vending machine and to means at said slots for arresting a washer or a coin or disk with a hole in it sothat the same may not pass to the interior mechanism of the machine, but which nevertheless may be withdrawn outmirdly from said. arresting means and from the coin-slot so as to leave said coin-slot free for the entrance of proper coins. The new mechanism provided by me will be applied to the coinslot plate of vending machines and be lo cated at the inner or reverse face of-said plate along the line of the coin entrance slots therein. The mechanism is such that on the entrance of a coin to any coin-slot, the other coin-slots will be barred against the entrance of coins or other matter until the coin first introduced, has descended into the machine. thereby avoiding the clogging of the interior mechanism or of the coinslots. All of the coin-slots are normally open to receive coins, and at each coin-slot, on the reverse side of the coin-slot plate, I provide a slidable arm which normally partly closes the coin-slot. a pivoted washercatcher dog having a pointed end adapted to transversely cross the coin-slot, a spring connecting said dog with said arm, a. linger on the arm for moving the dog to its inopof said spring when said arm returns to its normal position after having been moved therefrom by the entrance of a coin or the like into the machine, a slide or bar con necting all said arms for the simultaneous movement thereof. and a spring connected with said slide or bar for normally holding it and all the parts connected therewith in their normal position and retracting the same to such position after the slide and its associated parts have been moved by the passage of a coin through a coin-slot and against one of the said arms connected with said slide or bar.

The invention will be fully understood Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 4, 1922.

from the detailed description hereinafter presented, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings,in which: I V

F 1g. 1 is a vertical section, partly broken away, through the coin-slot plate of a vending-machine and the features offmy invention the. section being taken on thedo-tted line 11 of Fig. 4, and all of the parts being shown in normal position;

lg. 2 is a corresponding view of the same showing the position of the parts when a coin is introduced through the coin-slot, such coin being shown in position partly within said slot; I

Fig. 3 is a corresponding section illustra-ting the position of the mechanism when a washer or disk with a. hole in it has been passed into and partly through the entrance slot of the coin-plate, the washer being shown as having been arrested within the coin-slot;

Fig. 4 is a topview of the coin-slot plate and adjacent customary parts Fig. 5 is a sectional View, taken on the dotted lines 5-5 of Fig. 1 and illustrating in top view the mechanism of my invention which I apply to the coin-slot plate, the parts being shown in normal inoperated position;

Fig. 6 is a like View of the same showing the action of the mechanism of my invention when a coin is introduced thereto through one of the coin slots, a coin being shown in position ina coin-slot at the lower portion of Fig. 6;

Fig. 7 is a vertical section through the lower end of Fig. 6 and is taken on the dotted line '77 of Fig. 6, and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the dogs which I apply to the coin erative position in opposition to the force.

slots of the machine, onedog being supplied for each coin slot. y

In the drawings, 10 designatesa portion of the coin-slot plate of a vending machine,

this plate being of any usual or suitable construction, ll vertical flanges at the upper inner endof said plate, and 12a bracket secured upon said plate,'the parts 11 and 12 being of usual character and ordinarily employed to receive the lower end of the front plate or door of avending machine.

The coin-plate 10 is providedwith customary coin entrance slots 13, andat the inner face of said plate, in suitable relation to said slots, I apply the mechanism of my invention said mechanism being preferably mounted in or on a trough-like box or casing 1 1, which I secure to the inner side of the coin-slot plate 10 by means of screws or .rivets 15. The box or casing 14 is a shallow elongated container having a fiat bottom provided with openings 16 in line with the coin-slot openings 13 in the plate 10, and

jected outwardly through a slot 20 formed 'in said side 17 of the box or casing 141, said slot defining the limit of movement of the plate 18, which movement is from the normal position of said finger 19 shown in Fig. 5 to the operated position of the slide 18, shown in Fig. 6, and back to said normal position. The slide or bar 18 is elongated so as to extend along all of the coin entrance slots 13, and at each of said slots 13 said slide or bar 18 is formed with a forwardly projecting arm or member 21 from which a finger 22 projects longitudinally of said slide 18 and parallel with the main body portion thereof, the body of the slide 18 being at one side of the length of the coin-slot 13 and the finger 22 being at the other side thereof. The elongated slide or bar 18 will be provided with as many of the arms 21 and fingers 22 as there may be coin-slots 13 in the plate 10,

the features for each coin-slot 13 being duplicated at all the other coin-slots. Adjacent to one end of each coin-slot 13 I pivot 3 upon the flat bottom of the box or casing 14 a dog 23 having a hub-portion 2 1-, a laterally extending finger 25, an elongated arm 26 which extends along and to about the middle of the length of a coinslot. 13 and a rightangle pointed end or arm 27 which is at the outer end of the arm 26 and projects in a direction transversely of the coin-slot 13 and is formed with a beveled lower edge or surface 28. There is one dog 23 at each coinslot 13 and the arm 26 of the dog extends between the finger 22 and body portion of the slide or bar 18, and the finger .25 of each dog is connected by a small coiled spring 29 with an arm 21 of said slide and from which said finger 22 projects, as shown in Fig. 5. A spring 30 is connected at one end with the finger 19 of the sliding bar 18 and at its other end to a pin 31 connected with the boX 1 1, and this spring 30 normally acts to hold the slide or bar 18 in its normal inoperated position shown in Fig. 5. and when the bar or slide 18 is so held by the spring 30, the fingers 22 connected with said slide or bar are in engagement with the fingers 25 of the dogs 23 and hold said dogs,

in opposition to the force of the springs 29, with their arms 26, at one side of the plane of the coin-slots 13 and with the fingers 27 of said dogs at about the transverse line of the middle portions of the length of said slots 13 and in position to be projected across said slots when occasion may require, all of said fingers 27 being operated each time a coin or the like is introduced into any coinslot 13. The arms 21 of the slide or bar 18 normally stand across one end of the entrance slots 13, as shown in Fig. 5, and when a coin is introduced through any slot it must engage an arm 21 and move said arm and with it the slide or bar 18 along the box 14: in a direction to carry the arms 2]. from all said slots 13 or to the position shown in Fig. 6, it being impossible for a coin to enter the interior mechanism of the machine without said coin first moving, through'the bar 18, the arms 21 in a direction from the path through the coin-slots 13.

When a proper coin is introduced into a coin-slot 13 and moves the slide or bar 18 to carry the arms 21 from across the ends of the coin-slots, the movement of said arms 21 retires the fingers 22 from the dogs 23 to permit the springs 29 to so turn the dogs 23 that they will carry the arms 27 thereof in a direction to cross the path through the coin-slots 13, the end of the arm 27 at the slot receiving the coin moving against the coin, as shown at the lower end of Fig. 6, and the arms 27 of the other dogs 23 being projected entirely across the coin-slots, as shown at the upper portion of Fig. 6. After the coin, which I number 35, has been moved until its greater diameter passes below the edge of the arm 21 engaged by it, the spring 30 acting against the slide or bar 18, will cause said arm 21 to ride against the then upper edge of the coin and force the coin downwardly into the interior of the machine, said spring 30 thus giving an impetus to the coin and restoring the slide or bar 18 to its normal or initial position, shown in Fig. 5.

The movement of the bar or slide 18 to its initial posit-ion results in the fingers 22 carried by the arms 21, being forced against the fingers 25 of the dogs 23 and turning said dogs to their initial position in opposition to the force of the springs 29.

' lVhen a washer, numbered 36 in Fig. 3. is introduced through a coin-slot, it-will act against an arm 21 of the slide or bar 18 in the same manner that a proper coin would act against said arm, but the dog 23 at the slot receiving the washer will have its pointed arm 27 projected through the hole in the washer in the manner I indicate in Fig. 3, as distinguished from said arm allowing a coin to ride against it in the vmanner shown at the lower end of Fig. 6. lVhen the arm 27 of the dog enters the hole in the washer, said washer becomes arrested and cannot be pushed downwardly through the coin-slot. It is desirable, however, that the coin-slot be freed of the washer so that it may be used for receiving proper coins,

surface permitting the Washer to be drawn outwardly from the slot 13, the edge of the hole of the washer then acting against the beveled surface 28 to force the reverse turning of the dog to carry the arm 27 from the hole in the washer. The dog 23 may yield to release a washer, because of the yielding character of the spring 29 associated with the dog, and when the washer has been wholly withdrawn from engagement with the arm 21 of the slide or bar 18, the spring 80 will restore said slide or bar and all of the dogs 23 to their initial position.

I deem it to be an advantage that when a coin is introduced through any coin-slot 13, the dogs 23 at the other coin-slots be projected across said other slots so as to bar the entrance thereto of other coins, it being intended that only one coin at a time should enter through the coin-slot plate. The mechanism of my invention is intended for machines having a plurality of columns of merchandise and to the sale of a piece of merchandise from each column on one operation of the machine, and hence it is to be understood that after a coin has been introduced through one coin-slot and enters the interior of the machine, coins may be successively introduced through the other coin-slots so that finally on one pull of the operative handle of the machine, all of the coins present may be utilized for simultaneously dislodging pieces of merchandise.

My invention is not limited to the presence of only three coin-slots 13 or to there being any necessity for the presence of three coinslots, since the bar or slide 18 and the other features of the invention may be arranged for a machine having more than three coinslots 13 or less than three of such slots. My invention is present at each one of the slots 13, but preferably the invention is duplicated at each slot and the several sets of mechanism connected by the bar or slide 18 so that all of the dogs 23 may be set in operation when a coin or disk is introduced into any one of the coin-slots.

I have illustrated a coin-slot plate 10 of the slanting type, but frequently these coin slot plates are horizontal and in many instances they are vertical, and my invention is not limited to the shape of the coin-slot plate or the manner in which it may be mounted.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a coin-controlled vending machine having a plate containing a plurality of coin entrance slots, washer catcher mecha nism located at the reverse side of said plate adjacent to said slots and comprising a slidable bar having arms projected there from and normally crossing one end of said slots to partly obstruct the passage through the same, a spring yieldingly holding said bar and its arms in normal operative position, a pivoted dog at each slot having an arm adapted to project across the slot, and also to enter a hole in a washer should one be present, fingers on said slot obstructing arms normally holding said dogs in inoperative position, and springs acting against said dogs and adapted to move them to operative position When said dogs are released by the movement of said sliding bar on the pressure of a coin or washer entered into any coin slot and acting against the said obstructing arm thereat.

2. In a coin-controlled vending machine having a plate containing a plurality of coin entrance slots, washer catcher mechanism located at the reverse side of said plate adjacent to said slots and comprising a dog at each slot having an arm adapted to project across the slot, and also to enter a hole in a washer should a washer be present,

means normally acting on said dogs to move them to their operative position, and means for restraining all said dogs in their inoperative position and adapted on the introduction of a coin or a washer into any coin slot to be engaged thereby and release all said dogs to automatically and simultaneously move to their operative position, whereby on the use of any coin-slot of the series, the Washer-catcher dogs at all of the other slots will thereby move to operative position across said other slots and bar the entrance of coins therethrough until the slot used has been freed of its coin or washer.

Signed at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 16th day of September A. D. 1920.

HARVEY GILES. 

